See it at Sunnewsonline

• Internal crises ahead of 2015 threaten ruling party

• Ekwueme may emerge as BoT chairman

By VINCENT KALU

With its failure to elect its Board of Trustees (BoT) chairman, after a rescheduled election, the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has demonstrated that it is at war with itself. The party is yet to realise how possible it is to survive external war, let alone its internal war. The same internal war made the party lose its grip in the National Assembly in the 2011 general elections and also some governorship seats.

It went into 2011 elections with a very comfortable lead of 260 House of Representatives members and 85 senators, but at the end of the election, the fortunes of the ruling party depleted greatly, leaving it with 150 seats at the Federal House and 71 senators, while from 28 governors, it went down to 21. The same scenario is playing out, as various interest groups contend for the soul of the party and it appears the crisis would make or mar the party, ahead of the 2015 elections.

Today, if it is not former President Olusegun Obasanjo taking on President Goodluck Jonathan, in a supremacy battle on who becomes the BoT chairman, it is the Governors’ Forum challenging the party’s chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, over plans to bring back people that left the party for other parties. As it stands, history is about to repeat itself in 2015, as the ruling party is set to slide further following internal crisis. This time, the crisis is of higher dimension, as Obasanjo and Jonathan go for each other’s jugular, attacking and criticising each other in the public.

The election of BoT chairman vacated some months ago by Obasanjo was scheduled for last December, but the battle for supremacy forced it to be rescheduled to January 8, which was also stalemated, as the party failed for the second time to pick the chairman from over 10 contestants. Political pundits see this unsavoury development in the party as a drawback, as it prepares for 2015, considering the emerging formidable opponent – the merger plan of Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and other political parties that it is going to face.

Obasanjo is out to foist a former national chairman of the party, Senator Ahmadu Ali, from the North-Central, the same zone that produced the new secretary of the Board, Senator Jibrin Walid, while Jonathan is rooting for Chief Tony Anenih, a former chairman of the board from South South, who would do his second term bidding in 2015.

Based on the constitution of the party that kicks against both the chairman and secretary of the BoT coming from the same zone, the Obasanjo group mounted pressure for the resignation of Senator Walid, the current Secretary of the board, to pave the way for Ali’s emergence as the chairman. The attempt failed, as Walid resisted the pressure and insisted on completing his tenure. Other contestants for the influential BoT chair are Senator Bode Olajumoke, Alhaji Shuaib Oyedokun, a one-time Deputy National Chairman (south) of the party, Chief Harry Akande, a non-member of the Board, Senator Ken Nnamani, a one-time President of the Senate, Chief Emmanuel Iwanyanwu and former Vice President Alex Ekwueme, among others.

With the stiff opposition to Ali and Anenih, both Obasanjo and Jonathan’s candidates respectively, it was gathered that Ekwueme may be the compromise candidate. Checks revealed that since Jonathan is finding it difficult to sell Anenih’s candidature, other elements in the party are now rooting for a neutral and credible candidate to emerge. The group, it was learnt, has lent it support for Ekwueme, a foundation member of the PDP, whose quest to become president was thwarted when northern elements in the party drafted Obasanjo in 1999. As the battle for the BoT chair rages, another battle is on, this time, between the governors elected on the platform of PDP and Tukur.

The trouble that is brewing between the governors and the party’s leadership stemmed from the decision taken on Adamawa State PDP, where the executive loyal to Governor Murtala Nyako was sacked. As a result, Gov. Nyako has been having a running battle with the party’s national leadership over the conduct of fresh congresses in the state, a development that has also led to the suspension of the National Vice Chairman, North-East, Alhaji Girigiri Lawal, by the NWC. The NWC had dissolved the state PDP executive led by Alhaji Umaru Mijinyawa Kugama that was loyal to the governor and put in place Ambassador Umar Damagun-led nine-member caretaker committee to oversee the affairs of the party in the state.

Also, the move by Tukur to bring back former members of the party that left the party for other parties has not gone down well with the PDP governors. When former Ekiti governor, Ayo Fayose was readmitted into PDP, the state executive protested but because it is not a PDP-controlled state, Fayose had his way. Abia State governor, Theodore Orji, had led a delegation to protest the purported return of his predecessor, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu. The initiative to bring back former members of the party and the Adamawa crisis are counted as political sins by Tukur, which he must pay for.

These have led the governors to insist on the sack of the Tukur-led National Working Committee (NWC) and a caretaker committee inaugurated. In this vein, the PDP governors, who were instrumental in the emergence of members of the NWC, have reported Tukur to President Jonathan over alleged unsavoury attitude towards them and met with the president over a week ago. After the meeting, the crisis in the party deepened, as they failed to agree. After three hours of marathon meeting, efforts to resolve the lingering crisis rocking the party hit the brick wall and they dispersed to disagree.

To worsen the crisis in the party, a Federal High Court in Abuja on January 11, sacked the national secretary, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, from office. The Ogun State chapter of the party had, through its chairman, Engr. Adebayo Dayo and others filed a suit challenging the nomination of Oyinlola by the South West Caucus on the grounds that two court judgments had nullified the South-West zonal congress through which he was nominated. Although Oyinlola has moved swiftly to appeal the ruling and seek a stay of execution,

Tukur has gone ahead to appoint the party’s deputy national secretary, Onwe, as acting National Secretary. The vigour with which the party chairman moved to defend the removal of Oyinlola confirms that all is not well even within the party’s National Working Committee, NWC. Analysts believe that the cracks within the party at the national level and the various crises facing it at the states level are strong pointers to the fact that it will take a miracle for the party to go into the 2015 elections on a united front.

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The story is from businessinsider

So Facebook got caught using people's likenesses in Sponsored Stories without their permission.

A class action lawsuit ensued and it was settled for $20 million.

Now Facebook might have to cough up $10 for you if you are one of the people affected by the settlement, reports Buzzfeed.

If you recently got a "LEGAL NOTICE OF SETTLEMENT OF CLASS ACTION" email loaded with legalese, then congratulations – you can afford a nice lunch out.

File a claim form here and do it quickly. Buzzfeed's John Herrman points out that there are 150 million Facebook users in the US and only $20 million to go around.

MEND, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, has responded to the conviction in South Africa of Henry Okah, its former leader, declaring that the movement will be the start of the disintegration of Nigeria, and warning of disastrous consequences to befall the federal government and all of its officials since 1999.

The statement, dated 23 January, was signed by “Comrade Azizi,” but SaharaReporters has been unable to determine its veracity.
“Nigerians as a whole will feel our presence when we finally decide to carry out our targets which will not be restricted to the Niger Delta Region alone,” it warned, stating that as a group, MEND has become more sophisticated than the level of mere IED or car bombs, and reached “capabilities which will take the Nigerian Military another 10 years to catch.”

The statement declared: “We are not on the same program with regional agitators in the north or elsewhere, we will not hide our faces, soon and very soon, Nigerians will get to see the structures (Diaspora and Home) as well as our new states, regional commanders and new National Leader, arresting and killing Henry Okah will change nothing.”

It also offered the following chilling warning: “To the Nigerian Government, you have seen NOTHING, the disintegration of Nigeria will start through us and by us, we are well equipped for this task. We have details of all the family members of the Government (1999-2013) and our Diaspora Command will take care of that aspect, we will get to them, we will skin them and post their remains to your door steps as compensation to the Ode people, except our resources are handed over to us without conditions.”

MEND warned federal government officials to stay away from the Niger Delta, with particular attention to one current official:  “The Minister of the Niger Delta Ministry Mr. Orubebe Peter Godsday is hereby banished from Delta State and the region at large pending when he returns the money he stole which was meant for the Niger Delta Development Councils” and in various public offices since 1991.

“To our Natural Resources, there will soon be a massive earthquake that will be trigged by our nuclear war head, this earthquake will destroy the entire oil wells, oil pipelines especially to Kaduna refinery, oil installations, oil rigs and what have you, when it happens, which we know will be very soon, the Government and those owners of these oil wells and installation will know it’s a different ball game,” the statement warned.

It also warned South African companies operating in Nigeria, “LEAVE NIGERIA totally, there will be massive and aggressive campaign on all companies owned, operated and affiliated to the South African Citizens or their Government both in Nigeria, Western and Southern Africa respectively.”

Full Text of the Statement Purportedly From MEND
MEND/QTD/82MP/2013
23rd JANUARY 2013
Ref: CONVICTION OF OUR LEADER AND FOUNDER MR. HENRY OKAH.
We witnessed ourselves firsthand the conviction of our dear leader yesterday the 21st of January 2013 by the South African Supreme Court on all the 13th count charges which as we all know has to do with ASO ROCK politic on a man simply because he refused to be bought over.
Before yesterday’s ruling, we had high regards for the South African judiciary but not now as we were wrong on our previous assessment nevertheless, people pays for mistakes committed by others so we the High Command of MEND have an advice for the South African people, which is TELL YOUR GOVERNMENT through your judiciary stay away with events that happened in Nigeria or else some South Africans will pay dearly for it.

To the Nigerian military (The Joint Task Force (JTF) in the Niger Delta) don’t bother for now placing officers on alert, we will not bomb nor kill anybody for the time being, as we had communicated months back, we no long require IED or car bombs as we’ve gone pass that stage. Nigerians as a whole will feel our presence when we finally decide to carry out our targets which will not be restricted to the Niger Delta Region alone.

We so much understand the job load of an image maker but I most point our here clearly that the JTF’s spokesman, Lt.-Col. Onyeama Nwachukwu will have much jobs to do in the region anytime soon for thinking we rely on the OLD COMMANDERS that sold out to take up arms on behalf of our leader, just don’t underrate our capabilities which will take the Nigerian Military another 10 years to catch.
We are not on the same program with regional agitators in the north or elsewhere, we will not hide our faces, soon and very soon, Nigerians will get to see the structures (Diaspora and Home) as well as our new states, regional commanders and new National Leader, arresting and killing Henry Okah will change nothing.

To the Nigerian Government, you have seen NOTHING, the disintegration of Nigeria will start through us and by us, we are well equipped for this task. We have details of all the family members of the Government (1999-2013) and our Diaspora Command will take care of that aspect, we will get to them, we will skin them and post their remains to your door steps as compensation to the Ode people, except our resources are handed over to us without conditions.

All Federal, States and Local Government officials under the pay roll of the Government ( ministers, Permanent Secretaries, Director Generals, Directors etc ) should stay away from the Niger Delta, if found anywhere in the South South region, they will have themselves to blame and that is if they live to tell the tales.

The Minister of the Niger Delta Ministry Mr. Orubebe Peter Godsday is hereby banished from Delta State and the region at large pending when he returns the money he stole which was meant for the Niger Delta Development Councils and also while with:

(a) Burutu Local Government Council, Delta State (1991-1993),
(b) As second Member: Primary Education Board, Asaba, Delta State 2000-2003.
(c) As the Special Adviser to James Ibori former Delta State Governor on Urban/Regional Planning between January 2004 and November 2005.

This whole money belongs to the Niger Delta people and most be return or he should be ready to face the consequences along with your nuclear and immediate family members.

To our Natural Resources, there will soon be a massive earthquake that will be trigged by our nuclear war head, this earthquake will destroy the entire oil wells, oil pipelines especially to Kaduna refinery, oil installations, oil rigs and what have you, when it happens, which we know will be very soon, the Government and those owners of these oil wells and installation will know it’s a different ball game.

All oil companies, (foreign or local) should start parking up from the region as this might be the last warning, we really will not want civilians to be caught in between so please take this warning seriously.

To our old breed Commanders, you can talk as much as you want just because you were bought over for a token but we wonder why the fight against your masters, the hurricane is almost there and it will sweep everything left.

And finally to the South Africa Companies: we made some promises before and now we are repeating same, LEAVE NIGERIA totally, there will be massive and aggressive campaign on all companies owned, operated and affiliated to the South African Citizens or their Government both in Nigeria, Western and Southern Africa respectively.

OUR CAMPAIGN START AFTER HENRY OKAH’S APPEAL.
WE WILL MAKE A POINT!!!!
SIGNED:
COMRADE AZIZI
23rd January 2013

Culled from Saharareporters

It gives me immense pleasure to be part of this distinguished gathering. I am  very honored to be asked to speak on an important topic that is at heart of the national discourse and therefore the key to any solution to our various challenges. Behind every problem confronting us, there is corruption. Corruption is a recurring decimal in every change of government in this country.

We have got a problem with our country and we all know it and therefore we do not need to be constantly reminded  of it for it is an issue that we confront in our daily lives,  in  our schools, and our interaction with with the police, in the army or SSS, customs and immigration offices, prisons,the legislatures, the ministries, hospitals, in our courts and in the private sector as well like our banks, markets and not to mention, the media are daily awashed with mind boggling reports on corruption all over the country. Most of us here may be wondering how and when corruption took charge of our lives?

Since this event is taking place here in Kano and there will be no time to have an exhaustive coverage, let us just narrow the discussion to this part of the country, however, I will note that what happened here is similar reflection of other parts of Nigeria. for   starters, I would like to take a walk with you down memory lane on our recent past as a region. Sir Ahmadu Bello the first and only Premier of Northern Nigeria and his lieutenants, most  of blessed memories, led this vast region effectively for just about a decade. Keenly look at what they were able to achieve, largely with internally generated revenue because there was no oil then or it was insignificant in the revenue profile of the country. The last annual budget by the late Sardauna for the whole north was just 44 million pounds.

It is important to state that with this scanty resource, they were able to maintain law and order and ensure effective security of life and property for this vast region. They built Ahmadu Bello University, the largest in sub-Sahara Africa; they built Ahmadu Bello Stadium one of the largest and best in Africa at that time. They built NNDC, the largest black owned Conglomerate in black Africa; they built many textile factories, good roads, marketing boards, efficient water supply where it was available and good sanitation, well planned urban areas with trees and good hospitals with ambulances; good primary and secondary schools; Kaduna Polytechnic that is the largest in black Africa. Indeed everyone still recalls that golden era with justifiable pride. These were accomplished by men and women from here and not from the moon.

When Major Nzeogwu made his speech to justify the take over of power on January 15th,  1966, he mentioned that the military took over because the first republic politicians were collecting ten percent bribes.(though i am in disagreement with his assumption given the achievements recorded with the paltry sum) but nonetheless it’s presupposed that at least they were using 90 percent of the resources to do the work.
It would be great to pause the question ‘What is happening now’?  It is either the other way around: public officials taking away 90 percent and using 10 percent to work or even outrightly looting of the treasury; infact from recent reports, a lot of money is stolen from the source, that it does not even make it’s way to the treasuries of the many governments in the country today .

To be fair, it is important to mention that there is corruption in every society including all the advanced countries. However the irony is it has not stopped development. There was corruption in the first republic too. But it was dealt with effectively and it was not allowed to be the cancer that it is now. It was not as widespread and as rampant in scale and magnitude as it is now. As I was writing this paper I stumbled on a tweet that got me thinking that read as follows, "The revenue Nigeria received for the whole of last year  (2012) from the sale of crude oil is more than the yearly aid, the entire sub Saharan Africa received. Where is the money, where is the improvement?"  This was a question posed to us by the UK Prime Minister, David Cameron at the World Economic Forum in Davos .

Corruption is a vicious cycle. Mismanagement of public funds has direct bearing on the country’s collapsing infrastructure, standard of education, health facilities,insecurity, injustice, unemployment, poverty and other challenges which are interconnected. The efficiency of public services and ability of the regulatory agencies to regulate the private sector are also affected resulting in collapsing infrastructure and poor services. Corruption dents the citizens’ confidence in the integrity of leaders and credibility of governments, it  ends up with a total disrespect for authority.a sad situation  we are in Nigeria now.

Northern Nigeria which Sir Ahmadu Bello led at independence is now 19 states, the federal capital territory Abuja and 414 local government areas. These 19 states and over four hundred local government areas got a total of N8.3 trillion from the federation account between 1999 and 2010. We know quite well that every one of these local government areas have budgets per annum that is more than the budget of the entire northern region of old. Can we please emulate the glowing examples of Sardauna?

My take is that they were not corrupt and that was the  reason they achieved so much with so little. What is really happening now with all these huge sums have?

These local government areas do not even repair township drainages. They do not maintain existing markets and motor parks amongst many other things that would take a while to mention. Nobody knows what they generate as revenue internally because all the sums quoted in the reports and newspapers are just what they get from the federation account monthly. They hardly meet in council except when there are subventions to be shared. Local government is the nearest to the people and also has the easiest funds being stolen by corrupt officials and their collaborators.

The state governments are mostly not fairing any better. Some of the states have governors  that are doing some commendable developmental initiatives but many of them just need our prayers. Governance has been reduced to periodic elections. Once a governor gets elected, he or she will start planning for a second term; and as soon he or she gets a second term, the scheme to be president or vice president will start being initiated. For those who are not going to be either president or vice president, the retirement house for many governors is now the Senate on top of installing his preferred successor .

The constitution enshrines a three tier government of local, state and federal levels. At each level there are supposed to be three arms of government – executive, legislature and judiciary. From all indications the legislators have become, in most cases, rubber stamps. They are supposed to appropriate money for the executives. They are supposed to do oversight functions. In short, they are supposed to check the excesses of the other arms of government.

Today, if the legislators are doing their work effectively, many who are appointed ministers or commissioners wouldn’t have been there. Their oversight functions are now reduced to visit to ministries and agencies to get packages. Even monies that are appropriated as budgets, the committees of the legislature are part of those being awarded contracts by these departments in addition to their very generous constituency allowance  that is not subject to any check and balances.  To make matters worse, many legislators, especially from the northern states, hardly attend sittings to defend the interests of their constituents. They are mostly busy  traveling  to various parts of the world with their new found wealth. There are a few of them who are very good but I do not know when most of these distinguished and honorables will sit down to really distinguish themselves in their primary duties of making laws for the good governance of the society.

The judiciary is supposed to be the last hope of the common man. Justice is an attribute of God and is the real foundation of any egalitarian society. It is sad to say that the judiciary in Nigeria has of recent times become the main legitimizing institution for any corrupt practice. When you rig an election it is the judiciary that gives validity to that election,when the politicians are not in agreement, a judge will give a helping hand to the one with more power and money. When you steal public money and the anti corruption  agencies charge you to court it is the judiciary that cleanse that illegally acquired  wealth and makes what is unlawful, Haram, to be lawful, Halal, it may be made Halal by the judges but the society knows it is not and God knows one day we will account for all these deeds, if not now then certainly later; and if not here then definitely in the hereafter.

There are two institutions that throughout our history are very critical to any reform of the society – religious leaders and traditional rulers. In this part of the world, we have a model for reforming society as espoused by Shehu Usman Bi Fodio and his disciples. They did the 19th century revolution to establish justice, ensure equity and entrench intellectual pursuit for public good. Resisting evil and enjoining good was the foundation of that order.

Today, most of the custodians of our cherished cultural values are those who help the oppressive status quo to get entrenched. Except for a few, most of our traditional rulers are part and parcel of the on going corruption. They did not inherit this system from our revered grand parents and parents. The subordination of these institutions to the whims and caprices of state governments have made many of them subservient to the corrupt system.

Similarly,a lot of  the religious leaders  we have today stopped talking the truth to power. The Ulama  and clergies are supposed to be the successors of the divine prophetic messages. They are often  reduced to various pathetically sycophantic prayers for the success of oppressors and corrupt people in power,or if they are not duping their congregations, then they are busy attending to weekly ceremonies for marriages, turbanning ceremonies or burials across the land. They do not pray for the poor or for a genuine peace and progress of the people and society. So what do we do or what is the way forward?

Many people hold the view that the solutions to our problems lies with leadership , yes they are right,and  they also believe that the leadership is at the Highest level, anything short of a honest, fair, just,modern and courageous leadership at that level in Nigeria today will not bring us back to the glorious days of the past. the general blame is to the governors for the sorry state of affairs, but governors are not in charge of enforcement in Nigeria . Any society that does not enforce its laws properly will end up in chaos,lawlessness ,indiscipline ,insecurity,dishonesty and corruption,and this is the situation of Nigeria ,period. That leadership  in Nigeria  must lead in the fight against corruption,  it will take a  fearless and upright president to  stop  corrupt governors doing what they like with their state's money. The fight against corruption has to begin from there for it to be meaningful.

All of us must be involved in every way to raise the educational standard of our people at all levels in both western and eastern senses. It is not easy to mobilize an illiterate citizenry. We must enlighten and mobilize our people to be conscious of national and global trends and events,to fight election rigging and all forms of extremism in our communities. We must help in every way, individually and collectively, to get the right people to do the right things in the right ways. We must start naming and shaming corrupt people in our communities. In short, there is need for structural, institutional and attitudinal changes that should be deepened and widened all over our communities.

Today, whoever wants to get elected in Kano and many other parts of especially the north one has to evoke the name of late Mallam Aminu Kano of blessed memory. How much did he leave or what did he leave behind? Only his good name and good deeds! When President Shagari was overthrown by the military he had only N64,000 in his account. This is what the driver of a commissioner gives out daily, and yet he was president for more than four years in Nigeria. Many other examples abound in many parts of our beloved country, before and even now: it was done before and it can be done again,

The irony of fight against corruption  in Nigeria today is that even the corrupt ones  are pretending to be fighting corruption.A corrupt person cannot be in the  lead in the war against corruption. We are deceived constantly by  people in government and those outside government but are desperate for power or attention.These are the conmen under the guises as politicians and there are also a few conmen in the name of religious leaders. I appeal to these characters to please repackage. Kindly engage in other things that can bring you attention, drop this issue about “corruption that has now turned into a “cliche” that you are using to bring confusion to Nigerians.

There are sufficient laws and institutions to fight corruption in Nigeria today , what is needed more is the honesty,determination and competence to carry out the fight effectively at both the executive and judiciary level.

For now let us not be just spectators in the affairs of our country,  Corruption is denying us national development. Let the good ones amongst us get involved in politics and activism. Let us keep putting pressure on our corrupt leaders. My good friend, Rotimi Fashakin of the CPC, says “the corruption in the past is mere bazooka and that the corruption of the present has gone nuclear”. We need to work hard to deactivate this nuclear weapon as soon as we can otherwise it will explode on us all.

I thank you all for listening.

God bless us all.
 Paper presented by former EFCC chairman Nuhu Ribadu at the two-day summit for Northern Development  Focus Initiative (NDFI).
  

The story is from Dailytrust

Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Anyim Pius Anyim said the proposed Abuja centenary city would bring foreign direct investment worth over $15 billion when completed.

Anyim who was speaking to newsmen in Lagos on the project which marks Nigeria’s 100 years of  existence said the city would be designed by a reputable world  class design team as a contemporary efficient ‘mixed-use’ city with emphasis on modernity and Nigeria’s unique cultural heritage

To be built on 1,000 hectares of land, Anyim said the city would be revolutionary approach to urbanization in Africa and would support the Jonathan’s administration’s transformation agenda that champions private sector role in project of significant magnitude. By the end of its planned five-year development cycle, the city would have created over 50,000 construction jobs and permanent well-paying jobs, he said

He said the land for the centenary city would be acquired in accordance with FCT land swap agreement and being a private sector driven project, government, he said would not put any money into it.

“Government will not put any money. It is also not a concessioning arrangement since government will outsource the project to a company that has secured land allocation in accordance with FCT land swap arrangement,” he said

Anyim said the city is planned for a residential population of about 100,000 people but also to host 500,000 visitors daily

He said city like Dubai, Monaco, Shenzhen and Songdo would be the signpost of Nigeria of the future.

“The city shall promote leisure, tourism, commercial hubs, sports and 20 per cent residential. It shall promote world-class multinational and domestic businesses in a world-class and master planned environment that gives meaning to life, energy for work and pleasure for play while permanently contributing to Nigeria’s economic growth, diversity and greatness into the next centenary”, he said

Edmund Ebiware, one of the four persons arraigned for the October 1, 2010 bomb attack in Abuja, has been found guilty of terrorism charges by a Federal High Court in Abuja and sentenced to life imprisonment.

The judge overseeing the trial, Gabriel Kolawole, delivered the verdict after listening to the testimony of all the six witnesses and Exhibit Six, which validly linked him to the crime committed, as he also failed to give information to relevant authority.

Justice Kolawole cited the Section 40(B) of the Criminal Code Act, which provides that any person who becomes an accessory to treason or becomes aware of the commission of treason and did not give evidence to the President, a State Governor or a peace officer, in order to prevent the commission of the crime, is liable to treason and sentenced to life in prison.

He said: “I concluded that the accused person is adjudged guilty as charged, being aware early in September 2010, that Henry Okah was planning a bomb attack but did not give such information to any of the persons or authority listed in section 40,B of the Criminal Code Act.”

The bomb attack which took place at the Eagle Square in 2010, killed about 12 people and several vehicles were burnt beyond recognition. Henry Okah, the alleged mastermind, was recently found guilty of all charges of terrorism by a South African court and sentenced to 50 years in prison.

(Reuters) - China's economy could grow at more than 8 percent in 2013, giving some underpinning to global economic activity that is set for a mild, tortuous recovery this year, the head of China's sovereign wealth fund said on Saturday.

"China's economic growth could be over 8 percent this year. China's economy supports a very large part of global demand," Lou Jiwei, chairman of the China Investment Corp. (CIC) CIC.UL, told a forum.

China's economy expanded an annual rate of 7.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012, snapping seven consecutive quarters of weaker growth, as a raft of pro-growth policies kicked in.

The Q4 bounce helped lift full year growth in the world's second biggest economy to 7.8 percent which, though China's slowest pace for 13 years, generated roughly a third of global economic growth of 3.2 percent - itself the worst since the 2009 financial crisis and just barely above the 3 percent mark economists say signals a worldwide recession.

Lou said that even if China's growth did accelerate further in 2013, increased financial market volatility caused by Europe's debt crisis and concerns about the U.S. fiscal position, left the world economy set for a "mild, tortuous and slow recovery" at best.

Problems in debt-constrained countries, though, meant opportunities for cash-rich China, Lou said, adding that the government should encourage local firms to step up their efforts to expand and invest abroad.

"There are big opportunities for countries with cash on their hands, especially for China. We should grasp the opportunities and give firms more freedom in investing overseas," he said.

China has accumulated the world's biggest store for foreign reserves, some $3.31 trillion as at the end of 2012, generated largely as a function of capital controls that have forced Chinese exporters to sell foreign currency to the central bank.

Easing capital controls to let firms more readily use export earnings to buy overseas assets would please many executives who say strict rules and a lengthy approval process for outbound investments are big impediments to doing cross-border deals.

Despite the difficulties, Chinese non-financial outbound foreign direct investment hit a record $14.7 billion in December, taking the 2012 total to $77.2 billion from 2011's $60.1 billion, Commerce Ministry data shows.

Beijing targets a total of $560 billion in outbound foreign direct investment in the five years to end 2015.

REFORMS NEED POLITICAL COURAGE

Zeng Peiyan, a former vice-premier, told the same forum that China's leaders must have "political courage" to quicken economic reforms to help sustain long-term growth.

Zeng, now chairman of top Beijing think-tank the China Centre for International Economic Exchanges (CCIEE), said the Chinese economy was "shifting gear" and clearly decelerating from the double-digit average growth rates of the past three decades to 7-8 percent in the foreseeable future.

Chen Xiwen, deputy director of the office of the Central Financial Work Leading Group, a powerful body that charts key government economic policies, said China's growth strategy should focus on improving urbanization in its next stage of development.

Chen, who also heads the ruling Communist Party's office on rural policy, said China's actual urbanization rate is around 35 percent - lower than the official rate of 51 percent.

"In other words there are some 200 million (rural) people who have entered cities, but have not yet become urban residents. This is a big problem that we need to deal with in the future urbanization process," he said.

China's rigid household registration, or hukou, rules are seen by many analysts as China's most pressing reform item as a change there would address inequality and boost domestic demand, rebalancing the core growth drivers of the economy.

The millions of migrant workers who have entered cities from the 250 million-strong rural workforce are denied access to services like health and education, forcing them to save hard and constraining spending that would boost domestic consumption.

Spreading the benefit of China's ascent to its position as a global economic powerhouse is widely seen as the best way of quelling the risk of popular revolt and officials have pledged to gradually loosen hukou controls.

A newly recalibrated official index this month indicated China's gap between rich and poor was so wide that serious social dissatisfaction may be brewing.

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More than N10 trillion of Nigeria’s oil savings bequeathed by former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, to successors, Umaru Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan, was “squandered”, former World Bank executive, and key minister under Mr. Obasanjo’s administration, Oby Ezekwesili, has said.

Ms. Ezekwesili, a former minister of education, and a member of Mr. Obasanjo’s administration’s inner circle of trusted officials, said $45 billion was left as foreign reserves and additional $22 billion in the Excess Crude Account.

Six years after Mr. Obasanjo left office, no major investment or infrastructure has been put on ground by Messrs Yar’Adua and Mr. Jonathan (who served first as Vice president under Mr. Yar’Adua) to justify the huge sum which is more than twice Nigeria’s entire budget.

Ms. Ezekwesili spoke at the 42nd convocation of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, her Alma Mata, from where she graduated in 1985.

“The present cycle of boom of the 2010s is however much more vexing than the other four that happened in the 70s, 80s, 90s and 2000s,” she spoke, of the massive frittering of oil resources that successive administrations have inflicted on Nigeria.

“It is happening back to back with the squandering of the significant sum of $45 Billion in foreign reserve account and another $22Billion in the Excess Crude Account being direct savings from increased earnings from oil that the Obasanjo administration handed over to the successor government in 2007.

“One cannot but ask, what exactly does Nigeria seek to symbolize and convey with this level of brazen misappropriation of public resources? Where did all that money go? Where is the accountability for the use of both these resources plus the additional several billions of dollars realized from oil sale by the two administrations that have governed our nation in the last six years? How were these resources applied or more appropriately, misapplied?”

Ms. Ezekwesili led Mr. Obasanjo’s government’s remarkably successful drive at reforming government contracting procedure directed from the Due Process office. She was later named the minister of education in the final years of the administration.

Ms. Ezekwesili, now Senior Economic Adviser, Africa Economic Policy Development Initiative, said she realized how severe the nation’s education woes had been while she headed the ministry.

Her efforts at reforms failed to yield as the government soon left office.

In a lengthy presentation to graduating students who she urged to lead a new generation of change for the country, Ms. Ezekwesili painted the well-known sobering picture of Nigeria’s decades of oil wealth and how each administration since independence has not been an exception at wasting them through “tragic choices”.

“Neither our thirty four years of cumulative military governance nor the nineteen cumulative years thus far of our democratic governance provided us “inclusive and accountable governance,” she said.

“Instructively, a person or as in our own case; a nation is counseled to “stop digging when in a hole”. Lamentably, in our case we have consistently rebuffed the wisdom behind that counsel. We have instead dug deeper and the more we have dug, the deeper into the hole we have sunk and all because of political misadventures.”

The Yar’Adua and Jonathan administrations have been accused in the past of squandering Mr. Obasanjo’s savings, and Mr. Jonathan has particularly been accused of returning the country to debt with repeated borrowings.

Mr. Obasanjo’s administration’s saved funds started getting depleted soon after 2007; yet, no major new roads, rails, power infrastructures or job creation initiative have been cited as investments justifying the amount.

Critics have accused the Jonathan administration of using part of the money to execute the 2011 elections, allegation Mr. Obasanjo himself, faced during the 2003 and 2007 elections.

 A new law has recently converted the Excess Crude Account to Sovereign Wealth Fund, potentially limiting access to its value, but governors insist accumulated oil sales differentials be shared.